The Ficlet that Wouldn't End
by Death's Daughter
Summary: RemusSirius - Sirius gives Remus a valentine, and Remus doesn't realize it's for him, leading to a lot of misunderstandings and even more parenthetical speech.
1. Chapter 1

Remus Lupin did not like Valentine's Day

Remus Lupin did not like Valentine's Day.

It wasn't that he had anything personal against it – as days went it was nice enough. Most of the Valentine's Days that he'd experienced had been lovely brisk February days, perfect for walks around the grounds, which turned his cheeks and nose red and made him smile with the simple joy of exercise.

So no, really, Remus quite liked the fourteenth of February.

What he did _not_ like, nay, what he _hated_ about Valentine's Day was the behavior that came with it. People being soppy and fawning over each other and not being able to go anywhere without walking into at least one romantic couple embroiled in something that was definitely not suitable for the eyes of the lower years. Plus, there were the added horrors of the hideous amounts of pink and frills and cards and roses. Especially the cards and roses.

It wasn't that Remus was bitter because he'd never received a Valentine. This was actually something he was extremely thankful for. He, personally, couldn't think of anything more embarrassing than having a red rose thrust upon him in the morning and being forced to carry it around all day because he had nowhere to put it and everyone would be able to see it and they would giggle and speculate and ask horribly prying questions...

Don't get him wrong – he had a lot of respect for that St Valentine bloke he'd read about in Muggle Studies. Marrying people in secret - very kind of him. Sound like an alright chap. It was just that he couldn't _stand_ the 'celebration' that had sprung from it.

The only thing that got him through the day was his traditional walk with Sirius. Every Valentine's Day – Moon permitting – they would meet at the main entrance of the school – at four on weekdays, just after lessons finished, or at two should the day fall on a weekend – and they would yomp across the grounds for a couple of hours. Sirius would rant about how after breakfast James' conversational skills rapidly deteriorated until he was only about to talk about Lily sodding Evans and Remus would rant on how stupid and commercialist and sickening the whole day was and what would bloody St Valentine do if he could see what he had started anyway?

And once they had ranted, they would be able to chat amiably while they wandered aimlessly until it was time to go back to school before they lost various body parts such as fingers and noses through severe frostbite.

Remus Lupin did not like Valentine's Day. However, he had to admit that it had it's good points.

-

Sirius had it all planned out. It would be perfect.

Sirius knew a lot of things – at least half of them had no bearing at all on real life and those were, unfortunately, the things he best remembered – but the other half could be extremely useful.

For instance, he knew that James should never be allowed to eat chocolate bars for breakfast, he knew that Peter tending to start vibrating when he was terribly excited about something and he knew that he, Sirius Black, pureblood, oldest son and heir to the Black fortune ((well, he'd been disowned, but he'd disowned them back and the bit about him being the oldest son was still true)) was in love with Remus Lupin, werewolf, half-blood and heir to not a whole lot.

Sirius knew a lot about Remus.

He knew that Remus only ever ate cereal if the bowl was near overflowing because he'd be hungry all morning otherwise. He knew that Remus liked nothing better than curling up with a book by the fire when it was cold outside, that he would only ever turn down chocolate when he was seriously ill, that he didn't like mashed potatoes but loved parsnips and that he was almost as bad at chess as Sirius was.

The most important thing, at least at the moment, that he knew was that, despite it all, Remus quite liked romance. _Although_, Remus had pointed out to Sirius when they'd been discussing it one evening, _I only like the well-done kind. Most of it is terrible stuff. Makes me want to vomit. But the truly well-done stuff? The stuff that's only done in private, so you only know about it from films or books? That's nice._

However, Sirius also knew that Remus' paranoia for thinking that everything he did was being watched would greatly outweigh any appreciation for the gesture should an attempt be made to give him a Valentine in public. Fortunately for Sirius, Remus did not consider James, Peter and Sirius public. And that was where Sirius' marvelous plan began to build up.

He would place a bunch of roses on the werewolf's bedside table; they would be the first thing Remus saw when he got out of bed. It was perfect.

He had already planned what he was going to write on the card:

_Remus Lupin,_

_Happy Valentine's Day_

_P_

The 'P' was to give Remus something to ponder over. Sirius knew he liked a good puzzle from time-to-time. And then, if Remus hadn't worked it out in time for their walk, Sirius would tell him, then seduce him and they would live Happily Ever After.

If Remus _had_ worked it out, then he would have had plenty of time to realize that of _course_ he reciprocated Sirius' feelings and couldn't possibly live without him and they would seduce each other and snog a lot and live Happily Ever After.

It was perfect – like all of Sirius' plans.

This would be a Valentine's Day to remember.

-

Upon the morning of the Fourteenth of February, Remus Lupin gave a tremendous yawn and rolled onto his side, scrubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he blinked blearily at the curtains in front of him. He didn't know exactly what time it was, but he was _positive_ it was too early for sane people to be awake. He didn't particularly want to be up himself, because it was so cold outside and his bed was so warm and comfy, but he knew that the only way he was going to get a peaceful breakfast would be if he went down early.

He stretched lazily and kicked back the covers, sitting up and pulling back the curtains like he usually did. Breaking his usual routine, he then proceeded to catch sight of the item beside his bed and froze in horror.

Sitting on his bedside table, as if it had every right in the world to be there, was the biggest bouquet of roses he had ever seen.

For a moment he forgot how to breathe, so shocked was he. Why on _Earth_ were there roses by _his_ bed? Who would want to give _him_ roses? Normally people only gave them to James or -

Oh, _Sirius_.

It clicked.

They must be for Sirius, and whoever had delivered them had gotten the wrong bed - theirs were next to each other, it was pretty easy to get confused - Sirius had ended up in Remus' bed by mistake often enough.

Feeling a bit steadier now he was in familiar territory, Remus moved the roses carefully onto Sirius' bedside table, careful to position them so that the vase they were in wouldn't tip over and cause a mess. He surveyed his worked in a satisfied manner for a moment, experiencing a vague pang of something he couldn't identify as he looked at the blooms, before he got dressed and headed down for breakfast, his world the right way up once more.

-

Sirius woke up and, in a fit of out-of-character glee ((out of character because it usually took Sirius a good two hours to wake up fully enough to appreciate such delicate nuances of the human existence as emotions)), grinned up at the canopy above his head. Today was the day. By now, Remus would be down at breakfast, pondering over the identity of 'P'. In a few minutes, Sirius would join him, looking even more gorgeous than usual, and would be able to grin knowingly as Remus muttered his thoughts aloud, trying to puzzle it out.

He wouldn't put it past Remus to have figured it out by the time two o'clock rolled around. He knew he'd be on tenterhooks all day, trying to guess whether Remus had guessed.

He pushed back the bedcovers and sat up, intending to head downstairs and spend some time with Remus before Peter and James woke up.

He was just about to start humming as he tugged the curtains open, when he froze and whatever note had been about to escape withered and died. He felt his heart leap up into this throat, choking him and making his eyes sting, before tumbling down to the pit of his stomach and shattering into a million pieces. A sudden wave of nausea passed over him and he had to grab at the bedpost to steady himself as he swayed on the spot. He couldn't breathe.

He'd never expected Remus to work it out this quickly.

Sirius stood, somewhat dazed, and peered down at the roses on his bedside cabinet.

"Well...bugger," he whispered miserably, his voice tight. He located the card among the flowers - Remus had put it back where Sirius had left it. Obviously he wanted to pretend he'd never read it. "_Bugger_."

God, how arrogant was he? He hadn't even considered that Remus might not want him, that Remus might not even be gay. He was the poster-child for Egotism and it made him feel even sicker. Had he really thought that Remus' sexual preferences wouldn't be an issue if Sirius asked him out? Had he honestly believed that Remus would feel honored and flattered and roll over like a little puppy and let Sirius have his wicked way with him?

_Merlin_, if he was that arrogant all the time, it was no wonder Remus didn't want anything to do with him.

Sirius crumpled the card up into a ball in his hand and swallowed hard. Well. That was that then. A clean rejection. Quick and neat. And at least he'd tried, so he couldn't regret anything. He wouldn't live the rest of his life not knowing.

There was the sound of movement behind him.

"Woah!" said James. "That's a lotta roses! Who're they from?"

"I don't know," Sirius lied, somewhat shortly. "There wasn't a card."

James came up next to him and peered curiously at the flowers, looking ridiculous with his glasses perched on the end of his nose.

"Think they're from that Ravenclaw bird that's been eyeing you up?"

"No," Sirius snapped. "And I don't care. It doesn't matter." He strode into the dorm bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

-

Standing under the hot spray of the shower, hands pressed firmly against the tiled wall, head tilted downwards, Sirius watched the water drip off the end of his nose as he thought about his situation, his mind moving far faster than it was used to at this time in the morning.

It was no big deal. So Remus had rejected him. So what? There was no need for him to start acting like one of those people who sang those depressing Muggle songs about how the world was going to end because they had been rejected. Sirius always called the people who sang them cop-outs. And they were. Complaining that nothing was worth doing any more because they'd been snubbed. He'd bet that they hadn't tried and were just taking the easy way out and milking their misery for as long as they could.

Sirius Black was many things, but he was not a cop-out.

He had pride - that was the one thing his upbringing had been good for. He knew his own worth.

Remus didn't want him. So what? Que cera, cera. Life goes on.

And if Remus Lupin could live without Sirius Black, then Sirius Black could certainly live without Remus Lupin.

-

Remus looked up from his huge bowl of cornflakes as Sirius sat down opposite him, his long black hair loose and slightly damp.

"Morning Sirius!" he said cheerily. "Nice shower?"

Sirius paused and stared at him for a moment, visibly surprised, before carrying on loading up his plate.

"It was alright," he said slowly, frowning slightly. "A shower's a shower."

"That's true."

"Are you two getting philosophical about washing again?" James grumbled, plopping down next to Sirius and reaching for a slice of toast. "I do wish you would stop that. It's not the sort of thing a man wants to hear at breakfast."

Sirius grunted, absorbed in his breakfast, but Remus gave James a small grin.

"We'll try our best James. Sorry."

Sirius was somewhat shocked when he appeared for breakfast and Remus spoke to him as though nothing was different. It didn't take him long to regain his mental footing though, all things considered, and he congratulated himself on his quick recovery. If Remus wanted to pretend Sirius had never sent him a Valentine, then Sirius would follow his lead.

Of course, then that wanker James had to come down and had to make Remus give that little half-grin that quirked up the corners of his mouth and made Sirius ache inside. Some best friend he was. Sirius would have to thump him for that.

Peter arrived not long after James, seating himself beside Remus and they sat in silence until the mail arrived, bringing with it small mountains of cards for James and himself, and even a few for Peter, but as usual, none for Remus.

Sirius scowled briefly at his cards, suddenly realizing the reason he was so arrogant. He wished the cards in front of him to hell, and toyed with the idea of not opening them, but his natural curiosity and the fact that he was supposed to be acting normal quickly overturned that intention and he made short work of the envelopes, scanning each message briefly before tossing the cards carelessly to the table, feeling unusually lethargic. Thank Merlin it was Saturday. If anyone had tried to make him work today, it would have been just plain cruel.

-

Sirius left the Great Hall immediately he finished his breakfast, but Remus lingered for a little while, toying thoughtfully with the remains of his egg.

Sirius had _scowled_ at his Valentine's cards. Sirius had never scowled at his cards before. He had always laughed and gloated and compared the size of his pile with James' and was generally in his element. And then he always hung around in the Great Hall for a little while, flirting with all the girls, before going wherever he needed to go, flirting all the way.

Sirius hadn't looked like flirting was at the front of his mind when he left the table.

Sighing and pushing his plate away from him, Remus stood. He could always ask later when they went for their walk.

At the moment, Remus had some large-scale hiding to do.

-


	2. Chapter 2

When half past two in the afternoon rolled around, Sirius could be found in the boy's dormitories, sitting on his bed, moping

When half past two in the afternoon rolled around, Sirius could be found in the boy's dormitories, sitting on his bed, moping. He'd been in and out of there all day, making random appearances in public, flirting with the girls, so that people wouldn't realize anything was wrong. Now, he was sitting here, miserable and bored, because he knew Remus wouldn't want to be stranded in the wilderness of Hogwarts' grounds with him and he had nothing to do.

Of course, it was a nice distraction when James burst into the room and practically fell into his lap.

"Padfoot, you bugger, what're you doing?" his friend demanded. "Moony's been waiting for you in the foyer for the last bloody half hour!"

Sirius stared at him, then leapt off the bed, grabbing his cloak, gloves, scarf and hat and sprinting down to the entrance hall. He had an inkling as to why Remus wanted to walk with him, and it wasn't a good thing, but if he could spend this time with him, he wasn't about to complain.

He skidded out of the main doors and stopped abruptly, breath coming in huffs, making clouds of steam appear in front of him. Remus was sitting on the top step, elbows resting limply on his knees. He looked dejected – as though his only sane companion in a mad world had abandoned him because he couldn't take the strain.

"Moony!" he panted, and Remus started, turning to stare at him, before his face lit up with a grin. "Let's go freeze our arses off doing something worthwhile, as opposed to making an interesting-shaped groove on the steps."

Sirius held out his hand, which Remus took, and hoisted the other boy to his feet.

"I was wondering whether you'd ditched me for some girl," Remus said playfully, as they made their way down the steps.

"You think so little of me," Sirius murmured, with a faint grin. Remus was apparently a better actor than he, or had perhaps Obliviated himself. That was the only explanation. Couldn't the other boy feel the tension? Maybe it was all in Sirius' head.

-

They spent a good half hour at the start of their walk in silence, a distance of about four feet in between them. Remus waited patiently for Sirius to start the ranting as he usually did, but for some reason Sirius was quiet and every time Remus glanced at him he had a little frown on his face as though he was thinking deeply about something.

Eventually, Remus decided to take the lead and began to rant himself.

"-I mean, it's absolutely ridiculous the way they're all behaving like rutting bulls who've been kept in isolation all their bloody lives! You'd think they didn't bloody see each other every bloody day! And they don't even have the decency to find somewhere _private_ to engage in their...their..._serial molestation_! I nearly ended up joining in with four couples on the way to the library 'cause they'd parked themselves right where _anyone_ could walk into them! And then another lot fell on top of me while I was trying to read!" Remus kicked irritably at a small pile of snow that was annoying him with its mere existence. "And another thing – this whole celebration is pointless! I can understand couples celebrating it, as long as they do it privately where I'm not going to see things I don't want to see – I'm never going to be able to look bloody Amanda Gregson in the face now, by the way – but the way that it's become almost _obsessive_ to get a date to spend the day trying to eat...It's horrific! It's out of control! It's..._stupid_!"

"You're right," Sirius said gruffly. "It is stupid. The whole stupid bloody thing is a bloody stupid waste of my bloody time."

Remus blinked at him, surprised.

"I thought this was your cue to try and convince me that Valentine's was a wonderful holiday, if only I would loosen up a bit?" he said slowly, looking at Sirius as though the other boy had been possessed.

"Oh come on," Sirius snapped. "We both know you're right! It's a day of unwanted attentions from stupid idiots who don't think things through, have mouths that run away from them and spend their lives living with their stupid bloody heads up their stupid bloody arses because they're arrogant stupid gits and suck!"

With this declaration, he stomped off ahead, leaving Remus behind, somewhat stunned, wondering what all that had been about.

"Um...Sirius?" Remus called, stumbling as he tried to catch up with the other boy. "Sirius! Sirius, wait!"

Sirius stopped, staring moodily out into middle-distance, somewhere about five feet in the air in the middle of the lake.

"Sirius, is this anything to do with - "

"No. No it's not," Sirius cut him off, and Remus swallowed the rest of the sentence about that Ravenclaw bird, who he'd seen been thoroughly molested by some snot-nosed git from Slytherin. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I was...I was out of order. First I was late, now I'm snapping your head off. Sorry. Just forget everything, okay?"

"If I do," Remus said quietly, frowning slightly at his friend. "Will you start acting normal again?"

Sirius managed a faint grin and a raised eyebrow.

"Normal?" he said. "Me?"

Remus chuckled and walked off, Sirius falling into step beside him.

"You'll get over it," Remus said, after a space, convinced that Sirius was just upset about his Ravenclaw, no matter what he said. "Plenty more fish in the sea and all that. No big deal. Besides, it's not like it was _love_."

Sirius seemed to hesitate for a moment, before giving Remus a bright smile that seemed forced.

"Yeah!" he agreed, a little too cheerily. "Yeah! Love, pfft! What a silly idea!"

After that, Sirius began to act more normal, though sometimes Remus felt that Sirius was struggling to keep the tone light and happy. However, Remus was not more than a little worried and even that, by the end of the walk, was completely gone from his mind.

-

He didn't love Remus. He _didn't_ love Remus. _He_ didn't love Remus. He didn't love _Remus_. He didn't _love_ Remus. _He didn't love Remus, he didn't love Remus, he didn't_-

Oh bugger, what was the use?

Sirius lay on his bed, staring up at the canopy above it as he listened to the sounds of sleep coming from the other three beds in the room.

He did love Remus, he did, he did. He loved Remus and he believed in sodding bloody fairies ((never mind that he'd kept three in jars by his bed when he was little, that was very much besides the point)) and Nevernever Land and Peter sodding Pan who had an easy life of it because the only men he had to choose from were a bunch of under-tens and a shipful of fat smelly pirates and he was probably still a preteen anyway and wouldn't appreciate it properly if someone like Moony wandered into his life and was all sexy and clever and adorable and...

Well, the confrontation this afternoon hadn't gone that badly. Moony hadn't even mentioned the Valentine, and he didn't even mention rejection. He just said 'You'll get over it.' And 'It's not like it was _love_', which, actually, it was, but Moony didn't think that and that made the whole thing completely different.

Moony obviously knew Sirius liked him, otherwise he wouldn't have said 'You'll get over it'. He'd have just said,

"Sirius, you stupid tosser, why are you giving me a Valentine?"

Or something to that effect, probably accompanied by a solid clout around the head with a very heavy book.

The important thing now was that Sirius avoided letting Remus find out that it _wasn't_ just a silly girly crush and was actually full-blown-ever-after-his-and-his-matching-towels-misty-moors-and-corsets silly girly love.

Which could be a problem.

Sirius could feel that something inside him had...loosened slightly today. Whatever it was, it had quite enjoyed freedom, thankyouverymuch, and wasn't overly keen on the idea of being locked up again. Or smothered until it bleeding well suffocated, the irritating little snot-rag that it was.

His face became determined. Or at least, he hoped it did, but given his lack of sleep and the current hour being stupid o'clock in the morning, he probably looked more inebriated than resolved.

That aside, he knew what he had to do. He had another plan, and this one would probably lead to him not losing as much sleep as the other one had.

'Operation: Avoid Moony' was to begin tomorrow. Or later. Or three months from now, when he'd finally recovered from sleep deprivation.

If he ever got to sleep, that is.

-

Remus got the feeling that Sirius was avoiding him.

He tried to confide in James, but the other boy had just laughed and asked where on Earth he'd gotten _that_ idea.

Remus felt it best not to respond with the fact that he was pretty sure he'd heard Sirius muttering something like 'Operation: Avoid Moony' the other night. He didn't mention this because one, James probably wouldn't believe him and two he wasn't sure that he'd actually heard it, being only half-awake at the time. And even if he _had_ heard it, it might not have been Sirius. Although, it had sounded an awful lot _like_ Sirius, and since Sirius' bed was the closest to his…Even so, it was distinctly possible that Sirius had been just having another one of his random dreams.

Logic, however, dictated that he had actually heard it, since Sirius was quite definitely avoiding him.

The black-haired boy was, with regularity, turning up late to class, apparently losing that teleportation power that Remus was sure he had, the many times he'd seen Sirius on one side of the school one minute, then turning up to class just as the bell went, not looking at all ruffled.

Now he was turning up a good five or ten minutes late, and getting about a billion detentions from staff left, right and centre. The teachers who didn't give him detentions right off the bat were subjected to the utmost of Sirius' repertoire of misbehavior, only without any of his usual stealth. It was painful to watch.

Also, Sirius had achieved a new record, managing to find his way to his own bed first time for the whole week. This fact should not have made Remus as irritable as it did, but he found that he was rather missing the feeling of someone warm and quite obviously half asleep crawling into his bed of an evening and snuggling up to him like he was a big teddy bear.

This revelation was partially what was annoying him. Previously, he had believed that he had seen Sirius' inability to navigate the dorm as something of an amusing annoyance. Apparently it was something more.

Currently, Remus was curled up in an armchair, trying to read a book, but painfully aware of Sirius on the other side of the common room, sprawled on one of the two-seater sofas with one of the girls in their year – he didn't care which one, he hadn't bothered to look at her that closely – in the way that he usually did with Remus. For some reason, either to do with lack of good sleep ((due to Sirius not waking him up by flopping on top of him, oddly enough)) or the approaching full moon, or something else completely stupid, nameless and irrational, Remus was terribly, _terribly_ annoyed that the girl was pressed that tightly against Sirius' side and that she kept _touching_ him. That much touching was totally unnecessary. It was like she wanted to keep making sure Sirius actually existed or something.

Scowling something awful and annoyed at himself for it, Remus shifted his position slightly, moving the book to hide the pair. Then, for some stupid masochistic reason, he totally defeated the object of this by lowering the book just slightly so he could glower at them over the top of it.

The nameless girl ((who probably wasn't nameless, and was probably in one of Remus' classes and in actuality a very nice girl)) was now leaning in _very_ close to Sirius and appeared to be whispering something in his ear – or at least, that had _better_ be what she was doing – and now Sirius was laughing, his loud, barking laugh that he laughed when he found something that particularly tickled him, and she was grinning smugly that made Remus want to slap her in a girly manner and in an effort to suppress the growl that was rising up inside him he clenched his fists.

He vaguely heard the ripping noise and a yelp that sounded oddly like it came from Peter. He felt his arms jerk though, the feeling of something giving way, and he blinked back to life, looking down at his book, that was torn neatly in two pieces.

"Oh bollocks!" he swore, trying without much hope to fit the two sides back together. Bloody moon. How was he supposed to know his own strength when it changed so substantially every bloody month?

"Moony?" James said hesitantly, as Peter cowered behind him a little way away. "I think you should go have some quiet time. Now, before you kill something other than a book and I kill Peter."

Remus sighed and stood, trudging up the stairs to the dormitory, staring down at the two half-books in his hands with a mixture of mournfulness and righteous anger. Bloody Sirius. He'd never have hurt the book if bloody Sirius hadn't had that bloody girl bloody draped all bloody over him.

He'd really _liked_ that book as well.

He'd have to appeal to Mme. Pince to get her to teach him that charm to mend damaged books.

-

The only problem with being a dog was that you couldn't laugh.

On nights like this, when the air was fresh and the sky a deep velvet blue and the moon made the clouds streaked across it glow silver, shining so brightly itself that it had two rainbow-colored halos that Sirius had paused to admire on his way down to the Whomping Willow with James and Peter, being unable to laugh was a particular problem.

Tonight was the perfect night for flying, ploughing through the air at speeds too fast to be safe, and laughing like a lunatic at the joy of it all; or for just running like a madman through the fields surrounding Hogsmeade, leaping and tumbling, letting his cackles ring out into the night.

Of course, when he was human, he couldn't run and bound and roll and tumble in the same weightless way he could when he was Padfoot. He only regretted that he was unable to laugh – he could manage without opposable thumbs, clothes and magic, if only he could laugh – but in lieu of that he gave a delighted bark and cleared the fence around the field easily, followed closely by Moony.

One of the good things of having a werewolf for a friend, Sirius thought with the small, human part of his brain as he wrestled with the huge beast, was that if you were ever unsure where you stood with him, you quickly found out during the full moon, as werewolves had far less qualms about expressing anger than humans.

Moony had not tried to eat him upon seeing him tonight, so he obviously wasn't angry at Sirius. In fact, the wolf had seemed more interested in playing with Padfoot than pretty much anything else, and Sirius was willing to bet that James and Peter were getting quite bored. Not that he particularly cared.

Letting out another joyous bark, he sprinted off across the field, Moony in hot pursuit.

-


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, Remus lay in the hospital wing, frowning consideringly up at ceiling

The next day, Remus lay in the hospital wing, frowning consideringly up at ceiling. In an effort to avoid thinking too much on anything terribly taxing, he had counted every one of the little bumps on the ceiling, which was actually quite a difficult task and required a large amount of concentration.

However, now he had run out of bumps and his eyes were beginning to hurt anyway, so he was forced to ponder.

Remus had found that he never remembered much of what occurred on the nights of Full Moons, but he had discovered, since his friends had started to join him on these occasions, that whenever he was assaulted by a vague flash of memory, he remembered them not as animals, but as humans. It was a strange little quirk, but as he saw himself as a human as well ((for some reason he always remembered things as though he'd been watching from the sidelines)), he thought it perhaps had something to do with the increased amount of control he'd gained.

Last night had been the most time he'd spent together with Sirius since Valentine's Day nearly a fortnight ago. And he was faced with a mindful of half-memories of Sirius and himself wrestling in the middle of a field, which left him with a strangely warm feeling in his stomach.

This whole thing was terribly irritating. And it was all because Sirius was avoiding him. Inconsiderate bugger.

-

While the full moon had had the effect of making Remus introspective and somewhat broody, it had returned Sirius to his normal high spirits. Moony hadn't tried to eat him, everything was back to normal, and he could go back to pretending not to pine after Remus in peace.

He hummed a jaunty tune as he stepped out of the bath in the bathroom that was attached to the dorm. It wasn't as big and fancy as the Prefects' bathroom ((which he had seen all of twice)), but it had a tub and hot, clean water and that was all Sirius really needed to enjoy himself, not a bajillion taps full of Merlin only knew what, no matter how fun they were. Which, Sirius admitted, they definitely were.

Grabbing a large fluffy bath towel, he gave himself a quick, thorough rubdown which left his skin red and tingly, before he set about drying his long hair exuberantly, squeezing out the excess moisture and rubbing it until it was just damp as opposed to sopping wet and dripping down his back.

He tossed his hair back over his shoulder, drying off where it had dripped on him again. He was about to leave when he caught sight of himself in the full-length mirror and made his way over to it.

Giving in to a sudden impulse, Sirius wrapped the large towel around himself like a toga and studied his reflection thoughtfully in the mirror.

_The Emperor Julius Sirius Blackus_, He said to himself in a very grand mental voice. _Greatest and best-loved of all the Roman Emperors because of his kindness, wisdom and irresistible good looks, charm and animal magnetism, hereby decrees that Remus, the twin who_ didn't _build Rome but deserves some love anyway, be deified because he is a right sexy beast_.

Sirius posed in what he believed to be a suitable Emperor-pose and mentally pictured Remus in a toga – no! One of those little half-toga things that were essentially just very short skirts!

He grinned.

_And in honour of this momentous occasion, Emperor Sirius offers himself up as sacrifice to the new God – because this is too great an occasion for animal sacrifice, which is quite frankly messy and terribly gross – and invites Lord Remus to take this weak but extremely attractive mortal as his love-slave until his penis falls off and he becomes the Goddess Remusa_.

He held his hands up to the ceiling in supplication, grinning madly and laughing silently at his own ridiculousness. As a result of nothing holding it up and his shoulders shaking, his towel came loose and flopped into a pile at his feet, leaving him buck naked.

It was then that Sirius realized that Remus was standing behind him, gawking at him as if he were a lunatic.

-

When Remus had made his way up to the dormitory bathroom, his intention had _not_, little though he may have minded it, been to get an eyeful of Sirius Black's naked arse.

It had been, surprisingly enough, to have a hot bath, because he was achey and cold and feeling generally miserable. And he didn't like the prefect's bathroom, because it was huge and other prefects had a habit of barging right in taking no account as to whether the door was bloody locked or not. Bastards.

Not, of course, that his room-mates had any more respect for privacy – if anything they had less, because they weren't prefects and they were possibly the nosiest bunch on the planet. But they wouldn't stare at his scars and wonder where he'd got them. They'd be more likely to wince and hiss sympathetically and say that they hoped those nasty ones wouldn't scar permanently.

Normally, though, they kept clear of the bathroom when they knew he was in there, because they knew how paranoid he was about his scars.

And, up until today, Remus had been able to say with complete sincerity that he had never walked in on any of his friends when they were naked.

When Sirius caught sight of him in the mirror, mere moments after the towel had dropped ((followed very quickly by the penny)), it was difficult to say who blushed more – Remus' entire face went an attractive tomato-red, but Sirius sported an impressive reddish-purple colour across his cheeks, forehead and down his neck.

"Hullo Moony," Sirius said after a pause, smiling sheepishly at Remus over his shoulder.

"I'll, er, just pick this up, shall I?" Remus didn't reply, nor did he have a chance to avert his eyes before Sirius bent over to scoop up the towel.

Remus had never gotten a spontaneous erection so fast in his life, nor had he ever gotten one in a more inappropriate situation. In the back of his mind he was half-worried that he'd sprained something as he automatically moved his own towel to cover what his robes were already effectively hiding. It was just to be safe – he didn't want Sirius to think that Remus was thinking about his arse that way, which he wasn't. At all. It was just a perverse co-incidence.

Sirius straightened up, wrapping the towel around his waist like a sarong. He appeared to have recovered somewhat from the shock of Remus standing behind him and grinned brightly as he passed.

"Enjoy your bath, Moony!"

Remus stood _very_ still as Sirius passed through the door beside him, ignoring the effect that the proximity of Sirius' bare skin had on his current 'problem'. ((Not that the effect was all that unpleasant, but the reason behind it was and as such the latter sort of eclipsed the former))

As soon as Sirius had gone, however, Remus turned and locked the door with as many charms as he could think of and a bat-bogey hex for good measure, before he turned mechanically and began to fill the bath and strip off his robes.

He clambered in and finally let his body relax, preventing himself from drowning only by sheer force of will ((and the fact that he'd leaned back so his head was resting on the edge of the bath, holding him up)). He sat for a few minutes in that state of rag-doll-ness and watched the steam rise off the water until his eyes went funny and he was forced to close them, turning his mind to what had just passed.

That had been terribly odd. It must have been stress. It had to have been stress. That was, he supposed, the only rational explanation. Stress. Lots of stress. So much stress that he was drowning in it. He had stress coming out of his ears. It was definitely stress.

Or, of course, the other option of a nice healthy dose of lust for Sirius Black's arse, which it couldn't possibly be on that basis that he did not like this explanation at all. Nor, for that matter, did he like Sirius' arse.

Not that it wasn't a nice arse. It was – he hadn't been looking or anything, at least, not on purpose, but it wasn't exactly something that one could miss when Sirius paraded around in tight jeans and spent large portions of time on a broomstick which only served to draw attention to the bloody thing.

Remus sank under the water, letting his hair get nice and wet, before resurfacing, pushing it and the excess water out of his face as he reached for the shampoo.

Perhaps, he thought, it was a particularly feminine backside and it had been an automatic reaction.

To test this theory, Remus pictured it again, and realized that not only was it not a feminine backside, the jeans that Sirius wore, while flattering, did perhaps not do it the justice it deserved.

Despite the little voice in his head screaming that he was a stupid stupid werewolf and should stop RIGHT NOW before he was lead down the road to bad bad things that were not good, but bad and that even his terribly accomplished mind would be unable to make even the least convincing excuses for, Remus closed his eyes and called to memory the whole picture.

He was rather surprised to find that despite it not being a feminine bum, it was an extremely attractive one, not that Remus was really much of a judge. As the memory played in his head, he found himself being distracted by the way Sirius' muscles had moved under his skin when he'd brought his arms down from above his head, then had bent down for the towel displaying...

Well, bollocks. It very definitely _wasn't_ stress.

It must be bloody insanity.

-

Cold sprouts, Sirius mused as he chewed thoughtfully on one of the aforementioned vegetables, were really extremely underrated.

Sirius was one of those rare people who like sprouts, and since coming to Hogwarts he had been fortunate enough to taste some of the best sprouts on the planet. Hogwarts' sprouts were even better than Kreacher's sprouts back home had been, although the quality there had come more from the elf's absent-minded habit of wandering off in the middle of cooking than from any real culinary skill.

Good sprouts, in Sirius' opinion, and he rather fancied himself a sprout connoisseur ((although Remus continually contested Sirius' superior sprout knowledge, plebian)), had been cooked just long enough to be somewhat mushy and to rid them of the nasty bitterness they had when they were hard.

People who didn't like sprouts, Sirius thought, had been fed too many undercooked ones as children. An unfortunate, yet surprisingly common occurrence. He would have to write to the Prime Minister, see if he could do anything about it.

It was to be noted that Sirius liked lots of food that most people cried off from. Turnips, for example, and Parsnips, in the liking of which he'd found a companion in Remus, much to his delight. You knew a bloke was a right sort if he liked parsnips. It was no wonder Sirius had fallen in love with him.

Sirius also claimed to love liver, although the aftertaste was something he was constantly striving to find new ways to get rid of. There had been liver for dinner tonight, and Sirius had eaten nearly an entire plateful, which was why his sprouts, regrettably forgotten in his liver-induced enthusiasm, had gone cold.

They were, however, still doing an admirable job of getting rid of the liver-y aftertaste that was lurking in his mouth, waiting to jump out and get him when he was least expecting it.

Remus was sitting opposite him and had obviously been waiting patiently to talk to him since James and Peter had wandered off in revulsion with the intent of begging food that was neither liver nor sprouts from the kitchen elves.

It appeared that he'd finally worked out what he was going to say and little warning bells were going off in Sirius' head – he had a gut feeling that a serious conversation was imminent and it was up to him to avoid it at all costs.

As Remus opened his mouth, Sirius waved his fork, cold sprout and all, at him.

"You know," he said. "When I came to this school I fell in with a bad lot. Of course, I didn't find this out until half way through the first term and by then it was too late, I was too far in to get out." He paused and glanced at Remus, who blinked at him, stunned.

"However, you, Remus, you were always there, like a guardian angel, making sure that I didn't stray too far from the light and now I feel that I am finally strong enough to make a stand. I must end my association with James Potter and Peter Pettigrew, parsnip hating bastards that they are."

Remus blinked at Sirius, somewhat taken aback by this poetic declaration.

"…Indeed?" he managed to choke out after a pause, when it became obvious that Sirius was expecting some sort of response. Sirius nodded decisively, then went back to devouring his sprouts with gusto.

Remus had not actually been waiting to talk with Sirius. He had actually been studying the other boy curiously, taking in everything and weighing it up in his mind, trying to work out the basis behind his reaction the previous night.

He'd only started to say something because Sirius had noticed he was still there and he thought that perhaps he should speak before Sirius realized that not only was he there, but he was staring intently at him.

Sirius was, he realized with some irritation, very attractive. And while no-one could ever accuse him of being graceful, he was certainly enthusiastic. He did get terribly excited over the little things. He claimed that life would be so boring if he wasn't easily entertained that it was only sensible that he got excited over being able to hide under his bed and the fact that he could make his quill turn all the colours of the rainbow and sparkle.

Remus found that Sirius was someone who he could quite easily stare at for as long as Sirius' current occupation permitted him. Not that that was normally for very long. Sirius generally moved a lot. He had a lot of energy and took pleasure in burning it in ways that normally got him into trouble.

Sirius glanced up at him again, giving Remus a quick flash of blue-grey eyes that changed shades, according to Sirius ((although Remus was pretty sure he was only joking, despite not having proof otherwise)), depending on the weather outside. Apparently Sirius had finally noticed him staring and he brought a hand up to rub at his mouth briefly, probably thinking he'd gotten some brown sauce around it, before looking back down at his plate. Remus watched, fascinated, as the blood rushed swiftly back into Sirius' lips where his fingers had been pressed, making them seem a little redder.

He flushed suddenly and straightened up in his seat, trying to pretend he hadn't just been contemplating how else he could make Sirius' lips redder. He cleared his throat.

"Sirius?"

"Hello, yes, hello hello?" Sirius said promptly, snapping out of something of a daze of his own and grinning at Remus. "Yes?"

"I...ah..." He paused, mentally berating himself for not having worked out what he was going to say before he started speaking. "I'm sorry!" he blurted finally.

Sirius blinked and sat back in his seat as though he'd actually been hit. His mouth worked silently for a few moments and he frowned slightly.

"Uh...For what?" he said after a moment.

"For last night," Remus said. "For...y'know..." He let the sentence hang there, certain that Sirius wouldn't react well to the words 'getting turned on by your naked arse'.

"Oh...Oh! Pfft!" Sirius laughed and waved it off. "It's not a problem!" he chuckled. "I bet you've been agonizing about this since then, haven't you? Terrified you'd mortified me or something!"

Remus flushed and Sirius saw, then proceeded to burst out into peals of delighted laughter.

Sirius, who had been daydreaming that Remus actually _was_ staring at him and not aimlessly into middle-distance as he was wont to do from time-to-time, was suitably baffled by the other boy's impromptu apology and briefly pondered over the possibility that he'd missed an entire conversation while he was having a happy ((if rather smutty)) time of it inside his head.

The laugh he got out of Remus' apology though, was well worth being jerked out of his fantasy ((not to mention the apt timing, as it had been starting to become rather inappropriate for the present situation)), and he went off to his detention in the best of spirits, leaving a rather bemused Remus behind him.

-


	4. Chapter 4

Remus sat in an armchair in a corner of the Gryffindor common room and surveyed his feet

Remus sat in an armchair in a corner of the Gryffindor common room and surveyed his feet.

His toe was sticking out of the end of his sock. It was terribly annoying, not only because it made him look like one of those tramps he'd seen in London, but also because it was somewhat uncomfortable.

He'd been ignoring the slow deterioration of his sock for a while, simply pulling the fabric around until he was happy that none of his toes would fall out, but now the sock was in such a state that even that didn't help and he had to face the truth.

He had a hole in his sock, and he was in love with Sirius.

The latter, Remus supposed, would not appear to an unbiased observer to have anything to do with the former, but Remus, who had been sitting pondering the latter for almost as long as his sock has been falling to bits ((hyperbole excused)), had come to see that perhaps his relationship with Sirius was a lot like his relationship with his sock.

For instance, Remus had been avoiding admitting that he had a hole in his sock, taking it for granted that his sock would always have a toe in it, and avoiding facing the issue at hand for as long as possible by rearranging it whenever it got too uncomfortable.

This, he supposed, was what he'd done with Sirius. He'd taken it for granted that Sirius would always be there, ready to mock James, or have silly conversations, or just generally be a nuisance, that now Sirius was avoiding him he found himself realizing just how much he liked having the toe of his sock.

Sirius was his sock-toe.

Oh God, he thought, and looked at his watch. It's late. I hate it when it's late and I'm introspective and why isn't Sirius back from detention yet?

He continued ranting mentally about introspection, socks and Sirius until he finally dozed off in his armchair.

-

It was past one when Sirius finally dragged himself through the portrait hole into the common room. He was exhausted. His feet throbbed, his back ached and his eyes burned. He was _exhausted_...Bloody Filch...Lifting and carrying and dusting and cleaning and now he just wanted to _sleep_...

He paused in the process of bringing a hand up to scrub over his eyes when he spotted Remus, slouched in a chair on the far side of the common room, asleep.

"Oh tsk," Sirius muttered to himself, a fond grin twisting his lips. "Honestly, you need to take better care of yourself mate."

He moved over to where Remus was sitting and crouched in front of them chair, peering up into Remus' sleeping face, the other boy's chin resting on his chest as he dozed.

"You're hopeless," Sirius murmured after a while, shaking his head affectionately. "And you're going to get a crick in your neck if you stay like that. What're you going to do when we leave here and I'm not around to make sure you look after yourself? We'll have to find you a girl-version of me, who you can fall in love and have lots of little Moonies with." He stood and moved to the side of the chair, trying best to judge how he could work his arms underneath Remus so as to lift him up. He supposed using his wand would be easier, but since Filch had confiscated it at the start of his detention, so as to assure that he wouldn't use magic to move the boxes, and wasn't planning on giving it back until breakfast tomorrow, Sirius was stuck with carrying Remus himself.

"Of course," he continued, working one arm carefully under Remus' legs and the other around his back, gently so as not to wake him. "She won't be quite as wonderful as I am, or as good-looking, and she won't love you as much as I do, but that's only to be expected because, quite frankly, no one can."

He grunted as he heaved Remus out of the chair, pausing as Remus shifted, but when the other boy didn't wake up, he shifted his weight and made his way towards the stairs.

"However, she will be a girl, and she will be pretty wonderful, and pretty good-looking and love you an awful lot anyway, and you will of course love her, because she will be just like me, only a girl and slightly less generally brilliant, but seeing as my amount of general brilliance seems to bother you, this won't be a problem."

Slowly he began to climb the stairs, mentally noting that he needed to start getting Remus to eat more – the boy shouldn't be this light when he was asleep!

"I'd offer to audition candidates for you, but I'm afraid I'd be slightly biased and probably end up stabbing a few of them with my quill. Plus, I'd never be able to pick anyone who I thought was good enough for you anyway." Sirius frowned as he contemplated the door in front of him. This could be tricky...

"I know it seems unfair, but since you don't want me you're just going to have to settle for second best. After all, you can't really get better than me. I should know – I am me."

After some rather impressive juggling – Sirius still didn't know _quite_ how he'd done it – He was able to edge quietly into the dorm room, dropping his voice even lower as he padded across to Remus' bed.

"Besides, you don't need to worry about me. As long as you're being taken care of, I'll be fine. And hey, maybe they'll discover the secret of eternal youth and I'll be able to hit on one of your many mini-Moonies that you'll have with not-so-wonderful Girl-me."

Slowly and carefully, as though he was holding the most precious thing in the world, ((Which, not to get too sappy here because this sort of thing always made him feel nauseous, he sort of _was_)), he deposited Remus onto his bed and managed to wrestle his robes, tie and belt off so he'd be more comfortable.

Then Sirius stood for a moment beside Remus' bed, just taking in the other boy's features in the dim light. He smiled slightly, and one of his hands drifted towards Remus' face, freezing millimeters away when Remus gave a sniffle, then rolled over onto his side.

Carefully, Sirius reached down and disentangled Remus' hair tie from his hair, smoothing the tawny strands down as he did so, before pocketing the band and drawing the curtains on Remus' bed and heading towards his own.

Sleeeeeeeeppp...

-

Remus woke up and for a moment could not remember where he was.

Then, once he'd remembered that, he found he couldn't remember how on Earth he'd gotten there.

He presumed, of course, that if he'd walked up here himself and taken his tie, belt and robes off, not to mention lose his hair-tie in the process, then he would have been awake enough to remember it now. And he'd never in his life been accused of sleep walking.

Irritated that he couldn't work it out, he let the back of his mind gnaw on it while he recalled the very odd dream he'd had last night.

He had the suspicion he'd been wearing a wedding dress for most of it, and Sirius had been dressed like a Catholic Priest, carrying a bible and wearing little half-moon spectacles like Dumbledore's.

Sirius had been telling him that he had to marry a girl and have lots of Mini-Moonies, and Remus had spent most of the dream _trying_ to tell him that he didn't _want_ to marry a girl and he wouldn't be allowed to have mini-Moonies anyway, because of the laws the Ministry of Magic had with regards to that thing, but Sirius had just clouted him on the head with his bible and said

"Since you don't want me you're just going to have to settle for second best."

Then disappeared, leaving Remus terribly frustrated and wearing a wedding dress.

And there was something terribly frustrating about wedding dresses.

-

No-one was particularly sure who it was who had suggested a whole-house game of hide-and-seek, and not many particularly cared. All that mattered was that it brought about a circumstance which left Remus Lupin and Sirius Black in a cramped cubby-hole with less than an inch of space between the pair of them.

Sirius was good at hiding – most of his early life had been spent hiding from someone-or-other – his parents, his tutors, Regulus…

It wasn't until he had come to Hogwarts that he'd discovered hiding without the threat of danger and found that he quite enjoyed it – there was something thrilling about crouching or lying in the darkness somewhere while others, intent on finding him, searched everywhere except where he was ((it was like chase, but for lazy people, and Sirius did love chase, but he did also love being lazy)). It was surprising how small Sirius could make himself when he was determined to fit somewhere ((Often, 'hide and seek' became 'hide and hope Sirius gets bored within the next four hours or we'll be here all day')). As such, Hide and Seek wasn't played very often as the games were usually _epic_ ((Blocky Tig had been abandoned after every attempt ended in a giant hex-war and detentions for everyone in the vicinity, because some of the full-blood wizards apparently hadn't been able to understand that it was _against the rules_ to stupefy the person who you were racing to 'den'))

It went without saying among the Marauders that should a game of Hide-and-Seek break out, the invisibility cloak and map were not to be used, leaving three of the four marauders with a pretty similar handicap to the rest of the house and Sirius with a feeling of almost demonic glee as he fitted himself into cubbyholes that no human should have been able to fit in.

This particular game had shown signs of heading in the same direction, until Sirius had noticed that Remus, far from running off to hide like the rest of the house ((excluding the poor third year who had gotten the task of finding everyone)), was stubbornly sitting in his armchair and reading. All resolve to avoid Remus fled – he _couldn't_ just leave the stupid git there. It went against every competitive bone in his body.

He heaved a world-weary sigh and seized Remus' wrist, dragging him out of the common room with all his strength.

"Hey!" Remus yelped, stumbling along the corridor after Sirius. "What're you doing?"

"None of the Marauders is going to lose this game because he can't be bothered to hide."

Before Remus could reply, Sirius spun on the spot and grabbed his shoulders, pulling him down a thin gap between two doors ((which, Sirius had long since discovered, was there for no apparent reason)), which wasn't much wider than it looked ((if anything, it felt thinner)), and he found himself pressed up against a wall with the sudden, dizzying feeling that Sirius was going to kiss him.

Sirius, despite thoughts that followed a rather similar thread, did not kiss Remus, resisting the urge with Herculean effort and instead settling for edging further down the cubby into the shadows, tugging Remus along with him.

The gap was about wide enough for him to stand with his back flat against the wall at the end and have his shoulders pressed tightly against the walls on either side of him. To fit two people in, they had to turn sideways, and there wasn't enough shadow at this time of day to allow them to stagger their standing to give them room in front of them. They had to stand smushed up against each other, heads turned so that they could breathe and suddenly feel very paranoid about their breath.

And that was how Remus Lupin and Sirius Black were to be found in a cramped space with less than an inch of space between the pair of them.

"Padfoot," Remus said after a space. "You're a raving madman."

"I know." Sirius flashed Remus a grin that he could just make out from the light that stopped a few inches shy of them.

"No, Pads, this isn't a good thing."

"It always has been before."

"Now, though, you're just a psycho."

Sirius chuckled, his head falling forwards slightly and Remus tensed as he felt the warm breath huff against the skin of his neck. Now, he thought, would not be a good time to get an erection. It would be an even worse time than the time in the bathroom.

Sirius agreed whole-heartedly with this fact, but even that couldn't stop him from resting his forehead on Remus' shoulder and taking the opportunity to fully appreciate how _yummy_ he smelled. He'd missed this smell in the past fortnight. It was quite difficult to sleep unless he got his daily dose of Moony-smell before bed.

"Uh…Sirius…" Remus said after a pause, his voice shaking slightly.

"Sh," Sirius whispered. "Have to be quiet, or we'll get found."

Remus didn't answer, but he swallowed nervously and Sirius watched, fascinated, as his Adam's apple bobbed in his throat.

Remus kept very still, knowing that if he moved this whole situation could end very badly. For the first time in his life, he did not find himself amused by Sirius' hiding skills, but rather dreading the amount of time he would have to stand like this.

He could feel the heat radiating off Sirius' body.

"You're hot," he commented idly. Sirius chuckled and it vibrated through Remus.

"You finally noticed!" Sirius murmured. "I was wondering how long it would take you!"

"No, I mean, you're warm."

"I'm aware of that. That tends to happen when two people are squashed together in a small space." Remus felt a finger poke his side. "Relax, Moony. We're going to be here a while and you're going to get terribly uncomfortable if you spend the whole time standing like you've got a board taped to your back." As if to demonstrate, Sirius flopped against Remus more, and the other boy could feel his heartbeat through their robes.

Remus didn't reply, and a few moments later they heard footsteps and shrank further back in the shadows. Sirius grinned and shivered delightedly as he felt the thrill of the game run through him, mixed with the pleasure of being totally sprawled against Remus' front. A rare treat, that one.

He could see Remus looking down at him out of the corner of his eye and watched, breath catching slightly, as the other boy bit down on his lower lip, then glanced nervously up to then end of the cubby. His grin turned triumphant. Moony was worried about being found - he knew he'd get into the spirit of the game eventually!

The footsteps faded as quickly as they had approached and both of them seemed to relax even further. Remus gave into Sirius' advise and slid down the wall somewhat, so his legs were pushed against the wall opposite, Sirius' legs on either side of his own left one. They really were sandwiched very tightly together...

"You know," Sirius said conversationally. "If you hadn't been the scrawny thing you are, we'd have had to find somewhere else to hide."

"Dammit," Remus huffed, with a small grin. "I'll have to start eating more."

"Damn right," Sirius agreed. "You hardly weigh anything. Stupid git. And how you can bloody manage it when you eat like a horse is beyond me completely."

Something clicked at the back of Remus' mind and he tried to crane his neck to frown at Sirius. It didn't work very well, and his eyes hurt somewhat afterwards, but he asked his question anyway.

"Sirius, did you carry me up to bed the other night?"

"Yes." Sirius' response was muffled in his shoulder, where his face was buried. He followed this affirmative with the pronouncement, "I want to eat your shoulder."

"Please try and refrain from doing so," Remus said dryly, while the warm feeling he'd felt in the infirmary spread through his stomach again and a silly grin tried to claw its way onto his face. "I quite like my shoulder attached to me."

"Can I at least gnaw on it a little bit?"

"No."

"Spoilsport."

Sirius didn't know how long they'd been there. He only had a very tenuous grasp on the passage of time on a good day, but at the moment, pressed up against Remus as he was, he lost track of it completely.

He was pretty sure they'd been there for a while though - he was feeling the just-woken-up sensation spread through him and he was very comfortable and warm and not really eager to move at all - when Remus spoke up.

"I had a dream I was wearing a wedding dress the other night."

Sirius, who could unfortunately picture Remus in a wedding dress very clearly and had to shift himself slightly, didn't have a clue what sort of response Remus was looking for when he said that, but he felt tolerably certain it wasn't his own noise of acknowledgement, followed by,

"I had one of those the other year."

He felt Remus shift and he groaned slightly.

"You did?"

"Yeah," Sirius yawned. "Dreamt that I was wearing a wedding dress and talking to you on one of those muggle telephone thingies, even though you were in the room with me, and saying that I would marry you in two years if you made me fall in love with you by then."

"Really?" Remus' voice was somewhat shaky. "When did you have this?"

"Third year."

Remus laughed - it sounded a little flat.

"Guess I kinda missed my chance on that one then, hm?"

No you didn't, Sirius thought. You sodding git, you made me fall in love with you in less than two years and I've been pining after you since then and you haven't got the slightest clue.

"Yeah," Sirius replied. "Oh well. Since you can't have me, you'll have to settle for second best and marry some nice girl."

Remus started at that.

"S-second best?" he repeated.

Sirius nodded.

"Well, you can't get any better than me, can you?" He pulled back a little and flashed a grin at Remus. "So you'll have to marry some nice girl and have lots of mini-Moonies."

Remus stared at him, dumbstruck, for several moments. Eventually, he managed to gain control of his voice.

"Sirius, I-"

"AHA! FOUND YOU!"

Sirius and Remus' heads snapped around to stare at the triumphant figure at the mouth of the cubby.

"Well?" the third-year demanded, hands on her hips. "Are you coming out or not?"

They shared a look and shrugged, pulling as far away from each other as they could and edging back out into the corridor. The girl stared at them as they emerged into the light.

"Oh my god..." she breathed. "I don't believe it...I found...I found Sirius!"

"You did," Sirius said with a grin. "Well done!"

"I found Sirius!" she squealed, grinning delightedly, before turning and sprinting off down the corridor yelling "I FOUND SIRIUS!" at the top of her lungs.

"Guess you've lost your reputation," Remus said, smiling slightly at Sirius, who shrugged.

"Ah well. I'll just have to get myself another one then." He winked and then set off down the corridor towards the Gryffindor tower, Remus trailing behind as he realized that he'd been interrupted before he'd said what he wanted to Sirius.

-


	5. Chapter 5

The finding of Sirius had apparently signaled the end of the game, and for the rest of the day Sirius was swamped with people

The finding of Sirius had apparently signaled the end of the game, and for the rest of the day Sirius was swamped with people teasing him about it. He took it all very good-naturedly, grinning and laughing. Remus overheard him saying that it was all his fault and next time he was "leaving the bugger to fend for himself." However, as Sirius had winked at him while he was saying that, Remus couldn't bring himself to be offended by it.

Over the next few days, Remus kept trying to corner Sirius. He had decided that he needed to tell him, and despite every higher brain function screaming 'NO! BAD IDEA!' at him, he was sticking to his guns this time. Sirius needed to know, otherwise he'd keep babbling on for the rest of his life about how Moony had to marry a nice girl and spawn ((Sirius liked the word spawn)). Which would be terribly annoying and make Remus want to bash his head against solid things.

First, he managed to ambush him on his way down the stairs to the common room as Sirius was rushing up.

"Pads!" he called, grabbing Sirius' arm. "I need to talk to you!"

"Can it wait?" Sirius asked, looking at him pleadingly.

"Why?"

"I _really_ need to pee." He danced around on the spot as if to demonstrate.

"Oh..." Remus blinked. "Okay."

"Thanks Moony, you're a real pal, I'll catch you later, okay!" And he dashed off.

"Well," Remus said, frowning faintly at the stone wall. "Bugger that."

The second time Remus managed to corner Sirius, any talk of...well..._that,_ would have been entirely inappropriate as moments after Remus arrived on the scene, Severus Snape walked into _exactly the right spot_ and Sirius gave the signal to Peter and James who were also camped out in their own little cubbies along the hall, and Snape found himself covered in flour, water and pink glitter and experienced the feeling of deep foreboding that none of it was likely to come off any time in the near future. Remus knew better than to try and have a serious conversation with Sirius when he was celebrating a successful prank on Snape.

The third, fourth, fifth and sixth attempts all ended in a similar way. By the eighth attempt, Remus was not only frustrated, but positive that Sirius knew he wanted to talk to him and was doing his damndest to avoid him at all costs.

After four more attempts, Remus found himself in Potions, watching with great annoyance as Sirius dissolved his cauldron ((On purpose, Remus had no doubt)) and got handed another detention on a silver platter, along with a free scathing insult from Professor Sidgewick.

Annoyance overwhelming common sense, Remus decided to act.

-

Sirius had a sixth sense when it came to telling whether a serious conversation with in the air. This was useful, as, at seventeen, Sirius felt that it was his God-given duty to avoid a serious conversation as though his life depended on it, because he was far too young and too pretty to be having serious conversations on a regular basis.

He'd seen the look in Remus' eye before they went into Potions. That was extreme determination. Remus was going to corner him soon and Sirius would have to go to great lengths to avoid any possible confrontation.

However, this attempt, he thought, staring down at his fizzing cauldron in disappointment, had gone a bit tits up. If potions were going to go wrong, in his opinion, they should at least go wrong in an impressive way. He'd been aiming to make the bloody thing explode. That would have been fun. Apparently, this potion did not like to be exploded, and had...fizzed. Well, if Sirius Black couldn't make something explode, it quite blatantly couldn't be done.

Just as he completed that thought, a huge explosion from somewhere behind him rocked the room and several bits of rock fell out of the ceiling. He himself got splatted in the back of the head with something warm, gooey and not at all pleasant.

A feeling of horror dropped heavily to the pit of his stomach, and he turned slowly on the spot to see Remus, arms folded, slightly sooty and dripping goo, glaring at him over the top of the remains of his cauldron, blatantly ignoring as Professor Sidgewick ranted at him.

Well crap, Sirius thought. I've just signed my own bloody death warrant.

-

Sirius hid himself for the rest of the evening leading up to his and Remus' detention, and when it was time for him to report to the dungeons, he dragged his feet and found himself terribly, terribly nervous.

Remus was waiting outside the door for him, and when Sirius drew up beside him, he pushed open the door.

"Professor Sidgewick?" he called, Sirius shuffling along behind him. "We're here."

"I can see that," the aged Potions Master snapped. "At least you're on time. That must be your doing, Lupin, because Black has never been on time for anything in his life."

Sirius tried his best to not look affronted and attempted to twist his face into something remotely like 'sheepish'. From the expression on Remus' face when he glanced at him, he only succeeded in looking like he was trying to devour his own nose.

Professor Sidgewick handed them a scrubbing brush each and pointed to the large bucket of soapy water on the floor.

"I want this classroom spotless by the time I come back," he said, taking their wands off them. "Now get to work, I have a meeting with the Headmaster." He strode out of the room, his robes billowing behind them.

"How in Merlin's name does he get them to billow like that?" Sirius asked, after the door had slammed shut behind the Professor. "I can never get my robes to billow. D'you think it's a qualification you only get when you become a teacher or something, because I think I may have seen McGonagall's billow a few times as well."

"Sirius, I don't give a Kneazle's arse about billowing robes," Remus said, grabbing Sirius' shoulder and tugging him around to face him. "I need to talk to you."

"Can it wait?" Sirius asked, backing out of Remus' grasp and diving for the bucket of water. "We need to clean."

"Sirius, this is _important_."

"So is _this_," Sirius insisted, clambering up the stepladder that Professor Sidgewick had left behind and beginning to scrub the ceiling. "If we're not done by the time Sidgewick gets back, he'll eat us alive."

Remus let out a noise oddly like a strangled growl and Sirius winced as the other boy strode up beside him and started scrubbing at the wall.

"_Fine_," Remus said. "We'll do this. But get done quickly, Sirius, because I _will_ talk to you before the end of today, whether you like it or not."

They set to work. At first, Sirius tried to work slowly, but Remus whacked him hard with the wooden side of his scrubbing brush and he went back to work at normal pace, wishing that he'd just let Remus talk to him before they started, so it would have been over and done with and it wouldn't be hanging over his head like this making him feel as sick as anything.

When, finally they were done, Sirius dropped his scrubbing brush in the bucket and put his hands on the small of his back, arching backwards with a relieved grunt.

"Merlin," he breathed. "My back is killing me..."

When he opened his eyes, Remus was staring at him, his eyes burning with various things that Sirius couldn't identify because quite frankly he was naff at that kind of thing. He watched, frozen like a deer in headlights, as Remus flung his own scrubbing brush into the bucket with a 'clang' and a 'splash' and strode towards Sirius menacingly.

"Remus..." Sirius said, wracking his brain for _anything_ he might possibly have done to offend Remus, as he backed away nervously. "Don't be hasty now...If I've upset you in any way, I'm really _really_ sorry..."

"You've been avoiding me for the past bloody week," Remus snarled, in a terrifyingly un-Remus-Like manner. "And I've been getting rather frustrated."

"F-frustrated?" Sirius repeated weakly. "Why frustrated?"

Remus didn't answer. He just grabbed Sirius by the front of his robes and yanked him forwards, kissing him. Sirius, if he had had the presence of mind, would have winced.

The kiss was messy and un-coordinated. His lips were pushed back hard against his teeth and Remus' nose was just about in his eye and it hurt quite a bit and he could sort of taste blood, which was worrying. However, this was all overshadowed by the fact that _Remus _was _kissing him_ and it...

..._wasn't good_.

This wasn't right, this wasn't right. Remus must be out of his bleeding mind!

He pushed Remus away reflexively with all his strength, staring at the other boy, chest heaving, with wide eyes as he wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. Remus stared back, eyes equally wide and chest heaving just as much.

Merlin, what in the bloody seven hells had _that_ been? Sirius' brain made several false starts before it latched onto the phrase '_I've been rather frustrated_' and clung to it like a drowning man.

Remus did not like Sirius. Remus had given Sirius his Valentine back. Therefore, this meant that Remus' sudden assault on Sirius' unprotected oral cavity did _not_ mean that Remus wanted to kiss him and shag him and grow old with him in a soppy, girly, happily ever after way.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're _doing_?" he roared, furious. "Where the hell did that come from?"

Remus moved his mouth wordlessly. He had just realized the folly of letting his irritation control his actions. This lack of response, however, just annoyed Sirius more.

'_I've been feeling rather frustrated'_

"You _arsehole_," Sirius snarled viciously, his temper seizing control of his mouth. "I thought you were better than that! I can't _believe_ that you think that just because I sent you a Valentine, I'll just roll over and let you fuck me until you've worked out all your frustrations."

Remus gaped at him, taken aback.

"What?" he forced out. "Sirius, that's not what - "

"Stuff it, Remus. I don't want to hear it," Sirius snapped.

"Well maybe you need to!" Remus snapped back, temper rising to meet Sirius'.

Sirius shot him a disgusted look, drawing himself up to his full height.

"I sincerely doubt you have anything to say that could interest me. I'm not a common tramp, Remus, I've got more dignity than that. Although," he sneered. "Apparently _you_ don't."

"Oh, you _wish_, Black," Remus growled, stung. "Now's one hell of a time for you to start having standards."

Sirius shot Remus a withering look down his nose.

"Merlin," he said with feeling. "You _wanker_. I can't _believe_ I thought I was in love with you."

Remus choked on the breath he was taking at that and stared, gobsmacked, as Sirius whirled and strode out of the dungeon in a way that wasn't quite as billowy as Professor Sidgewick, but was just as impressive, passing the Potions Master on the way out, his expression as black as his name.

Remus stood, gaping after Sirius, dazed. He felt vaguely concussed, although he knew that Sirius had not actually hit him and words could not do any physical harm to a person unless a wand was added to the equation. He didn't register Sidgewick dismissing him, but his feet carried him out of the dungeon and through the various corridors of the castle.

Sirius had sent him a Valentine. It must have been those roses. The roses that Remus had thought were for Sirius and put on Sirius' bedside table and Sirius had thought Remus was rejecting him. Oh bollocks, and now the stupid bastard had got completely the wrong end of the stick and thought that Remus was looking for a quick shag.

He heaved a heavy sigh and scrubbed his hand over his face.

The main point was that Sirius was – or at the very least had been – in _love_ with him.

Unfortunately, this knowledge did not fill him with the joy he had expected he would feel. It just made his stomach twist painfully. All this palaver because of a series of stupid misunderstandings. Of course, it wasn't likely that he'd be able to convince Sirius of that without one hell of a lot of effort.

He shook his head to clear it and climbed into the common room, flopping heavily into his chair. He chewed thoughtfully on the knuckle of his left thumb as he pondered this conundrum.

This, he thought, was going to be terribly difficult. Sirius was a person who took a lot of convincing. However, this did not phase Remus. He was, after all, one of the Marauders, and he liked nothing better than a challenge.

Especially when overcoming this challenge could be extremely satisfying.

-

"Argh! This is so boring!" Sirius grunted, flopping forwards onto the book open in front of him. "I hate advanced magic!"

James raised an eyebrow at him from the other side of the table.

"Sirius, you were an animagus by the time you were in fourth year. What the hell kind of magic do you call that if it's not advanced?"

"But that was the _fun _kind of advanced magic," Sirius whined. "At the end there was the whole fun turning into an animal bit! This is just the boring kind of advanced magic and it's just a load of warnings about how you shouldn't turn a mole into an elephant for an extended period of time, or how when houses are transfigured into planes inaccurately the wings have a habit of turning into doors."

James snorted and flipped his own book shut.

"Merlin, you're right," he huffed, running a hand through his hair. He heaved a sigh and leaned back in his seat.

After a long, silent, lethargic pause, Sirius spoke. His voice was somewhat muffled, since his face was still smushed against the pages of his textbook, but James had had lots of practice in translating various states of Sirius' incomprehensibility and was able to muddle along just fine.

"James? Can I ask you a question?"

"You just did," James pointed out. Sirius lifted his head to rest his chin on the table and glared at him. "Oh alright. Yes, Padfoot, you may ask me a question."

"Good." Sirius chewed on his bottom lip. It had been a week since the Disaster in the Dungeons, as he called it ((He was quite proud of his use of alliteration there)), and while he had managed the first couple of days to be as frosty as possible to Remus, he was beginning to have his doubts. Especially since every time he snubbed Remus, Remus would just give him a small smile, a tiny shrug, and go back to whatever he was doing. It was rather unnerving. And it made him wibble every time because he knew that Remus now hated his guts because he'd let his stupid Black Family temper take control of his stupid Black Family insult drive and he'd been...rather rude.

"Prongs?" he said after a pause.

"Yes Padfoot?" James responded obediently.

"If Lily wanted to have sex with you, not because she loved you back, but because you were just convenient, would you have sex with her?"

James blinked, then grinned.

"Of course! Then she'd see how wonderful I was in bed and fall in love with me immediately!"

"I'm serious Prongs!" Sirius sat up and slammed his hand on the table. James started slightly.

"Jeez...Sorry..."

"What if, right, you _knew_ she'd never love you back, even if you _were_ wonderful in the sack – Which," Sirius added. "I sincerely doubt – because...you knew she...let's say...because she liked girls? Would you still sleep with her then?"

James narrowed his eyes at Sirius.

"Are you trying to say that Lily's a dyke? Because you know, I won't believe a word of it! That's slander that is!"

"It's just hypothetical!" Sirius said. "Look, will you answer the bloody question!"

James huffed out a sulky breath but, Sirius had to give him his due, he did think very hard before answering the question.

"No," he said, after a long while, his voice serious. "Because for one thing, it'd just show me exactly what I couldn't have, for another it would be, well, desperate - "

"Because you don't seem desperate in all your other dealings with her," Sirius scoffed.

"Look, do you want me to help or not?"

"Sorry, sorry. Carry on."

"Lastly," James continued with flourish. "Lastly, it would be pointless to sleep with someone who would not properly appreciate my skills."

He folded his arms in satisfaction and met Sirius' gaze with a smug smile. Sirius blinked at him.

"Right," he said after a pause. "Thanks."

"Why did you want to know?" James asked, suddenly curious. "Has Lily been asking questions?"

"Don't be daft," Sirius said, but it was a half-hearted attempt at scorn as he processed this. "I just wanted to make sure I made the right decision the other day."

James raised an eyebrow, a small grin forming on his face.

"Oh-ho!" he said, somewhat triumphantly. "Never say that the Almighty Sirius Black, who is above such mortal emotions as Love and will mock all sufferers, has suddenly found himself in Aphrodite's unforgiving grip!"

Sirius shot him an unimpressed look.

"I don't mock all sufferers," he muttered. "I only mock you, you twat. And I never said I was above it. And it's not sudden."

"That's a relief," James grinned. "I haven't seen you so much as look at a girl since third year. Some of the other lads on the Quidditch team are laying bets on whether you become a monk or not. Personally, I was more worried that you'd turned into a nancing great poofter."

Sirius smiled weakly.

"Yeah," he murmured. "Imagine that."

"So who is it then?" James demanded. "Margaret McBreen?"

Sirius blinked at him.

"What the hell made you think of her?" he asked.

"She's that Ravenclaw who was eyeing you up," James explained patiently.

"No..." Sirius, who made it his business to know each and every person currently attending Hogwarts by name, face and ((if appropriate)) reptuation, said slowly, looking at James as though he was demented. "Margaret McBreen is two years below us in this house. You're thinking of Megan McBreen."

"I thought that was Martha..." James frowned.

"Martha was in Ravenclaw and left when we were in second year," Sirius explained.

"Megan is in our year and also in Ravenclaw. Margaret is in our house, in fourth year, along with her brother and sister, twins, who are in first year – Michael and Shelly."

"Shelly's a nickname isn't it?" James asked suspiciously.

"Michelle," Sirius clarified, and James groaned.

"Cruel parents," he grumbled, shaking his head in disbelief. "Cruel, cruel parents."

Sirius smirked and nodded his agreement, thankful that James could be so easily distracted by the recitation of the genealogy of various students at this fine education establishment.

-


	6. Chapter 6

Remus was up in the dormitory, plotting

Remus was up in the dormitory, plotting. It was hard, as he had predicted, and he found it rather worrying that his main source of reference was his Muggle Studies textbook. Three full, extremely long chapters on the 'courting traditions' of muggles ((as most of them were the same for Wizards, Remus got the impression that the author just wanted to wax lyrical about romance for a while. He was not impressed by this.))

"Oh, this is useless," he muttered, grimacing as he glanced over the pages. Disgusted, he snapped the book shut and let out an irritated breath, flopping back against his pillows.

The main theme seemed to be the same, giving gifts ((Except for the small section about beating people around the heads with clubs and dragging them off by their hair, but Remus had a feeling that that wasn't really very socially acceptable any more)). This was nothing new to him. The problem was – Anything that Sirius Black wanted, Sirius Black got for himself.

He had to get Sirius something that Sirius didn't realize he wanted yet.

This could be a bit difficult.

-

It took Remus a long time to find the Perfect Gift ((capitals required)) for Sirius. It couldn't be too expensive ((because Remus didn't have _that_ much cash)), but it couldn't be some knock-off thing from the corner shop.

Ironically enough, though, Remus did find it in a corner shop ((although not the same kind of corner shop he had been thinking of)), and it was at knock-off price. However, given the way it hummed slightly with some kind of intriguing energy, and the fact that incorporated dragons and shiny things into the design ((two things that Sirius was quite fond of)), Remus didn't think he would mind.

Unfortunately, as he didn't manage to find this until the day before the full moon, he was forced to take certain measures to make sure that Sirius understood everything properly.

-

"Are you sure you'll remember everything?" Remus asked anxiously.

Peter shot him a disgusted look.

"I think I can handle giving someone a letter, Moony," he said. "I'm not quite as stupid as Prongs and Padfoot make me out to be."

Remus blinked, then gave him an apologetic smile.

"I know. I'm sorry, Wormtail." He shrugged. "It's just...this is really important. Trust me, I'd be fussing far more if I had to get James to do this. I know I can trust you."

Peter beamed up at him.

"Don't worry. I'll make sure he reads this." He grinned. "For one thing, you two fighting is damn scary."

Remus chuckled.

"It must be pretty awkward for you and James, especially since you haven't got a clue what's going on."

"Can't say I'm not curious," Peter said, pocketing the envelope. "But it's not exactly my business now is it? And I doubt James has even noticed." He hustled Remus towards the door. "You need to get going. We'll be down to see you later, alright?"

"Alright. See you, Pete." Remus gave him a small wave, then began to make his way towards the hospital wing to meet Madam Pomfrey.

-

"Here."

Sirius blinked down at the plain, innocuous white envelope that Peter was currently holding out to him.

"What the – Wormtail, I just want to grab my brush off my bed."

"I'm under strict orders," Peter said, trying his best to suppress a grin. He wasn't doing very well, Sirius noted irritably. "I'm not to let you near your bed until you've read this."

Sirius glanced at his bed, the curtains of which were drawn tightly around it, as usual.

"Under orders from who?" he demanded.

"Moony."

Peter blinked in surprise, Sirius moving faster than he had thought physically possible to snatch the envelope and tear it open. He fished out the paper inside ((only one sheet, he couldn't tell if that was good or bad)) and unfolded it, greeted with the sight of less than half a page of Remus' small, rounded and nearly indecipherable handwriting.

He squinted down at it, ignoring Peter's curious gaze.

_Sirius,_

_I'm positive you of all people will remember my shameful admission that I like romance. However, equally shamefully, I do not have much of a knack for it myself. I'm afraid I can't really compete with a positive rose-bush. _

_I want to apologize for that, by the way. I...didn't realize they were for me and_ _dumped them on your bed thinking they were yours. Probably should have looked at the card, but I have ethical problems with reading other people's mail ((Unless they've already read it, before you say anything))._

_I'm not sure how much you meant the other night – we both got quite snappy. However, I hope you did mean one thing – that you love me. Because, since you've been avoiding me, I've realized that I sort of love you. I think you probably did mean it – you don't generally tend to be complimentary when you're as pissed as you got then. That was my fault too – sorry._

_To make up for it, I got you a gift. I hope you like it, I wasn't really able to inspect it properly – it didn't really agree with my werewolf side._

_Hopefully, I will see you tomorrow,_

_Love_

_Moony._

Sirius blinked. He re-read the letter again, in something of a daze, his eyes drawing back to that one sentence _'I sort of love you'_. A big stupid grin split his face and he felt happier even than when he got his bike.

After a rather long pause, during which Peter's gaze turned from curious to frankly quite frightened, the last paragraph sunk in. Carefully folding the letter back up and placing it in the inside pocket of his robes, Sirius then moved towards his bed. He pulled back the curtains with a flourish ((he only ever opened curtains in a flamboyant manner. It seemed pointless otherwise)) and spotted the item on the top of the bed.

He sucked in a breath that was echoed by Peter and he picked the gift up reverently.

It was a small sword. Its hilt looked to be silver and was fashioned in the shape of a dragon, the pattern of which continued to twine across the scabbard, the material of which showed faintly crimson through the metal. Reverently he drew it out, enjoying the 'zing' noise it made. It couldn't be more than fourteen inches long – not a proper sword by any counts – but it was beautiful. It had dragons, and it was a pointy weapon of death ((the kind that Sirius had a particular weakness for)), and it was shiny.

Shiny and _silver._

Well, he thought, that cinched it. Remus normally avoided Silver like the plague, for obvious reasons. That he'd do this for Sirius? Proof positive.

Beaming, he shoved it back in its scabbard and tucked it neatly in his suitcase. Then he grabbed Peter's wrist, hairbrush completely forgotten, and dragged him down the stairs to go join Remus for the night's entertainment.

-

Remus' face twisted into a slight grimace as he woke up and he made a discontented noise, shifting around a bit for a few minutes before reluctantly admitting that he was awake and opening his eyes.

He found Sirius sitting over him, smiling down at him in a terribly worrying manner and he frowned.

"Sirius?" he asked, muzzily.

"Sh," Sirius said with a grin. He handed Remus a small cup of something, which Remus took. "Swill," he commanded. Remus obeyed that, and the closely following "Spit."

He spat the minty-tasting liquid into the cup that Sirius held in front of his mouth, then stared at Sirius, terribly confused.

"What was that?" he asked.

Sirius just grinned wider, then grabbed his chin and kissed him thoroughly.

When they broke apart, Remus licked his lips and blink dazedly at Sirius.

"Um?"

"Mouthwash," Sirius said, smiling.

"Mouthwash?"

"Didn't want to kiss you when you have morning-breath," Sirius clarified. "Would've meant I'd have had to stop to let you brush your teeth."

Remus considered this.

"Oh," he said.

He paused.

"Does this mean I'm forgiven?" he asked.

Sirius laughed.

"You're adorable when you're half asleep," Sirius told him, before kissing him again.

Remus took that as a yes.

-


End file.
